title: Breast cancer patient with an uncommon lymphatic drainage evidenced by SPECT/CT.
abstract: SPECT/CT reinforces the role of lymphoscintigraphy in breast cancer by solving some cases with difficult reading on planar scintigraphy. An 80-year-old woman was referred to our institution for management of a screen-detected, nonpalpable, invasive lobular carcinoma of lower inner quadrant of the left breast. Lymphoscintigraphy was performed before surgery. Planar images showed an axillary sentinel node and 2 medially located hot spots. SPECT/CT allowed determining that one of the extra-axillary drainage sites was to the internal mammary basin, while the second corresponded to a mediastinal lymph node. Although this drainage was unexpected, mediastinum is a common site of breast cancer recurrence.
authors.affiliation: From the *Department of Nuclear Medicine, Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris, France; †Nuclear Medicine Service, PET Unit, Santa Maria della Misericordia, Rovigo Hospital, Rovigo, Italy; ‡Department of Nuclear Medicine, Haut-Lévêque Hospital, CHU Bordeaux, University Bordeaux-Segalen, Bordeaux, France; and §B2T, Doctoral School, IUH, University of Paris VII, France.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Groheux
authors.forename: Romuald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferré
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rubello
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vercellino
authors.forename: Elif
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hindié
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed